To Stand Aside
by loomweaver
Summary: If you don't succeed at first, stop trying.


Yasuhiro Hagakure lies dead in the shower booth, as the blood slowly flows out of the stab wound on his chest down the shower drain.  
No, that's wrong.

* * *

Yasuhiro jolts awake in panic, the memories of the nightmare he just dreamed through quickly fading in his mind. He goes through the motions of exploring Hope's Peak Academy, discovering the rest of his class, along with the giant immovable door blocking the exit and sturdy metal plates covering the windows. The young man can't shake an inexplainable feeling of deja-vu, as he witnesses a monochrome bear suddenly appearing to announce the beginning of the Killing School Life,  
It isn't long until the history repeats itself, and Hagakure lies dead in the shower booth.  
No, that's wrong.

* * *

This time, Yasuhiro holds onto the premonition of his death brought upon his dreams. After all, if he didn't, what kind of Ultimate Clairvoyant would he be?  
He maneuvers through the day, attempting to change his inevitable fate, and this time, he miraculously succeeds.  
When the appointed date of his execution comes, Yasuhiro experiences twisted relief upon the announcement that Leon Kuwata was found dead in the shower booth.

Unfortunately, it seems that Hagakure's execution was merely postponed. There isn't enough evidence available to go on with the Class Trial, and after Makoto Naegi is almost unanimously voted to be the killer, it is with twisted glee that Monokuma announces that they made the wrong choice, revealing Sayaka Maizono as the true culprit.  
It isn't long until the history repeats itself, and Hagakure finds himself bleeding out on the floor of the courtroom, filled with lead along with the rest of the class by the Monokuma-controlled miniguns.  
No, that's wrong.

* * *

Yasuhiro awakens slowly this time, careful to remember every single detail of what he just experienced, determined to prevent the tragedy from ever occurring. He tries again and again, sometimes winding up on the floor of the shower booth himself, other times being executed with the rest of his class, unable to convince his classmates about Maizono's guilt, but he never succeeds.  
No, that's wrong, that's wrong, that's wrong, that's wrong!

But this time, something is different. This time, something changes, as the body discovery announcement of Maizono booms through the academy's walls, and Hagakure can't help but find himself looking forward to the Class Trial.  
Of course, he fails the first time, and the time after that. But now, now that he knows that his fate can be changed, if ever so slightly, he is determined to survive past the first Class Trial.  
When Kuwata is found guilty for his crimes, even as Yasuhiro witnesses the sickeningly bloody execution that is Monokuma's Punishment Time, he can't help but feel the morbid feeling of satisfaction.

* * *

The second murder and the consequent Class Trial pass by Yasuhiro in a blur. He is barely involved in it, as Naegi and Kirigiri finally decide to pick up the slack and solve it on their own first time around.  
He isn't so lucky with the third trial, unfortunately, Celestia Ludenberg successfully framing him for the murder he didn't commit - and for what, money? Yasuhiro laughs at the absurdity of the thought as the bullets riddle his body and force him on the floor once more.  
He goes through the motions of the first and second trials once more, his actions mechanical, as if he was operating on autopilot. When Naegi predictably approaches him during his free time, he makes the wisecrack about his 30% prediction rate, quietly thinking to himself that lately his predictions have become perfectly accurate, and he almost finds himself smirking at the irony.

Of course, Yasuhiro isn't simply drifting through his life without a purpose, simply waiting for the third Class Trial.  
Instead, he takes the chance to study Celestia's habits in detail. His entire life revolved around scamming money out of unwitting dullards, and yet, for the life of him (literally) he can't comprehend how the woman could kill and frame innocent men for something as meaningless in their current situation as money. But that is neither here, nor there, so he dispenses with sentimentality, playing his role of a jester perfectly and guiding Naegi and Kirigiri through the trial from the shadows.  
When a fire truck crashes through the burning theater scene and crushes Celestia, Hagakure can only feel a mixture of contempt and grim satisfaction.

* * *

The next trial isn't as involved for Yasuhiro as the previous three were. Sure, he still dies a few times and has to start over from the beginning, but by this point, he is growing numb to his deaths, feeling nothing but short-lived disappointment. Besides, there were no murders this time around, only a sad story of suicide for the sake of their class.

* * *

Fifth trial comes around, and Hagakure can't help but feel that the nightmare has finally ended. The unanimous vote for Kirigiri sends her to her death, and by this point, the Killing School Life is finally over.  
Yasuhiro starts a family with Asahina, both him and Naegi taking her for a partner, and the peace finally settles in the academy.  
Of course, it couldn't have been so easy, right?

* * *

When Yasuhiro finds himself waking up again in that accursed classroom all the way in the very beginning, he can't help but feel pissed off. Monokuma somehow managed to provoke Togami into killing Hagakure with one of his motives, and for that, Hagakure feels pissed off. He trusted the man, if not emotionally, then at least for Togami to be rational and not commit a murder with so few people left.

This time around, he reconnects with Togami, forming a tentative friendship, to ensure that when the time comes, the motive would have no effect on him.  
Naegi approaches him again during his free time, and it is with unrestrained mirth that Yasuhiro prophesizes that Naegi and Yasuhiro will have children from the same woman.

The trials come and go, and the tentative peace is established once again, and Yasuhiro can finally say that he won.  
No more unexpected murders come this time around.  
He won his peace, the peace that will last forever, to the end of his days, as he lives out the rest of his life in the academy, surrounded by his happy wife and children. And while he might be stuck in this academy walled off by metal plates and giant doors, Yasuhiro has finally achieved his victory.


End file.
